Stay focussed for weight loss this Christmas!

Of course they're obvious!  Of course you've heard it all before!  

But here's the list of tips to help you get through the holiday season anyway - just give it a quick read as a reminder! 

Hints and Tips for Christmas and The New Year

    

       1.  Buy healthy snacks for times when you’re going to be too busy to cook.

       2.  Plan your eating.  If you’re busy rushing around the shops or wrapping presents yourself time to eat

      3.  If you’re eating alone make it a salad!

      4.  If you have a big meal (and a pudding) skip the next meal or reduce the size of it dramatically! If you’re used to having your main mean at night then a big meal at lunchtime will probably see you through to breakfast the next day!

     5.   It’s ok to skip a meal if you’re having brunch and a main evening meal!

      6.   Drink plenty of water to avoid tiredness, headaches, general bad tempers – and hangovers!

     7.    If you are drinking alcohol have a glass of water in between each alcoholic drink – and start with water, after all it’s going to go down fast as the first drink is usually about thirst!

    8.     Don’t worry about how many calories you eat in a day – just make sure you balance a week’s calories and you won’t put on weight.

    9.    Don’t weigh yourself between Christmas and New Year – leave it until mid January when you’re “back to normal”. Or if you’re one of those lucky people taking a holiday over Christmas or in January enjoy it! Get on the scales a week after you get back.

   10.   Enjoy the holidays – get out and about.  Get some fresh air and exercise

         This is two weeks of your life. Don’t let it change your goals

 Believe me, you will be the size and shape you want to be...deserve to be!

Merry Christmas!

So what IS hypnotherapy?

I suppose because I've been a hypnotherapist for over 14 years, using hypnotherapy to help thousands of people, I understand what hypnotherapy is and how it feels and what it can do.

I forget that even though I have loads of clients out there talking to their friends, colleagues and relatives who I could help, many people still only recognise hypnotherapy as something weird and magic - or maybe just weird and scary!

So what is hypnosis - what does it feel like? Hypnosis is like that feeling you go through just as you're falling asleep.  You're very relaxed.  You can still hear.  You could still move if you wanted to - but you don't want to.  You are totally in control.  You are very relaxed.  Not asleep but not awake.  Drifting and drowsy.

When you're in this very relaxed state we can communicate with your unconscious, or subconscious mind.   It's where your memories are kept, and your habits.  In this relaxed state you are very open to suggestion but importantly you cannot be influenced to do anything that you don't want to do. So hypnotherapy is therapy whilst you're in that relaxed state we call hypnosis. 


I spoke to a client yesterday who stopped smoking with me in 2008 and he was telling me that he talks about me and what I did for him with friends and they say they too want to stop smoking or lose weight or whatever.  They find what he tells them interesting - and yet they never contact me.

He is as flumoxed as I am (just love that word flumoxed!).

So what is happening?

Have you heard the saying "I'll believe it when I see it"?  Well seeing it - success - for someone else just maybe isn't enough.  We have to see success for ourselves.  But why should anyone try something they don't understand?

Particularly with stopping smoking everyone has been conditioned to fail.  Years ago people stopped smoking with pure willpower, maybe started again, stopped again, many times.  If you're over 50 like me you'll remember relatives and friends doing this - you may have done it yourself.   Then the pharmaceutical industry got involved.  "We'll help you stop smoking" they said "stick this patch on your arm/back/bottom!".   And some people stopped.  And some people didn't.  And some that stopped started again.  And then some tried the patches again.  And they failed again.  The patches failed but the smoker then saw themselves as the failure.  So the pharmaceutical industry invented nicotine gum.  Then a mouth spray.  Then the drug Zyban.  Then Champix.  And people tried to stop and some stopped. And some started again.  And felt like a failure. Again.  But it wasn't them that failed it was the patches and gum and spray and drugs.

The best success rate of any of the "aids" I've mentioned is 25%.  So no more than 25% of people who tried ever stopped.

And of course I could talk about failing at diets in the same way couldn't I?

But now you are conditioned to fail.  You need to see it to believe it if someone offers you an alternative way to stop smoking (or lose weight).

Hypnotherapy is, of course, a very alternative way!

It's not weird and it's not (I'm sorry to say) magic!

If you'd like to learn more about how your unconscious mind works - and how we can use hypnosis and hypnotherapy (therapy in hypnosis) to change your habits then give me a call.  I've got a really good CD for you to listen to so you can experience hypnosis at home.

Then you can decide you want to stop smoking or lose weight or get rid of a phobia or build your confidence.  Let me help you understand how hypnotherapy can work for you.  If you want it to.

Recipes

Do we really need to be told what to eat?  We know what's healthy don't we?  Really?  I don't share recipes with my clients because I think most of them are quite capable of buying a cook book or googling!

But just in case anyone wanted to know, here's what we're having for dinner tonight!

Greek Briam (my version)
4 tomatoes, sliced
2 potatoes, sliced
an onion, sliced,
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 average sized courgettes, sliced
Some recipes add aubergine (sliced!) and/or red and green peppers.

Put all vegetables in a deep oven proof dish, tomatoes at the bottom.  Add a splash of oil and some herbs and cover with foil.
Place in a hot oven gas mark 6 for 45 minutes.  Uncover and cook for a further 30 - 45 minutes.

Serve with anything that takes your fancy though I like mine with a piece of lamb cooked in the oven for about 30 minutes and my husband likes his with vegetarian sausages - and he likes a few peas with it too!

This takes about 5 minutes to prepare but a good 90 minutes to cook.  It's the only thing I cook that takes more than about 40 minutes!

Confused?

Are you as confused as I am about the all the information coming out in the press about e-cigarettes?

I'm pretty sure I read a few weeks ago that the UK health supremos has decided that e-cigs are safe, they do not encourage younger people to smoke and they will be available on prescription becuase they do help people to stop smoking.

Yet today I read that the EU supremos (you are voting today aren't you - think of it as a practice for the "in or out" vote in June) have decided that e-cigs don't help anyone to stop smoking, are potentially harmful and most of them, particularly the flavoured ones should be banned!

Oh and packets will have to be a boring green or brown colour.  And you'll only be able to buy 20.  And a packet will be £25.  Sorry I made that up!  Or actually I didn't because that's going to be the price for a packet of cigarettes in Australia.

So I'm confused as a non-smoker. So how do smokers feel?  Ill probably.  Sick and tired too I bet!  But seriously, wouldn't it just be easier to stop playing this game.  Feeding money into the tax system and the greedy tobacco companies coffers?  Did you know that it's British American Tobacco that make e-cigs?

You don't need to put anything in your mouth for comfort.  I'm sorry if this is a bit confrontational but you're not a toddler.  Sensible adults are becoming non-smokers.  Because it makes sense. One session to stop smoking.  No confusion.

Back to www.breakthehabit.co.uk

Are you avoiding getting help?

Have you got a problem that really needs fixing?  Are you at the end of a painful dry January - or losing the will to live on your new year diet?

Maybe you're standing outside in the driving rain because a cigarette took control and said you just had to go!

You may be reading this because you found something about me that said - "hey! I can help you!"

Or did a friend send you a link?

So yes, you know you need help!  But are you avoiding getting help?

23% of the adult population in Leeds are smokers - that's about 3% above the national average.  So we know you're out there!

I've lost track of the latest figures about obesity, or pre-diabetes, or diabetes, or anxiety, or stress.....

So why are you avoiding getting help?

Do you think it'll be too hard to do without your cigarette/glass of wine/chocolate bar?  Are you still convincing yourself that you are addicted and it will be too painful to stop? Maybe you've already tried and failed - and can't face failure again.  Maybe you've even tried hypnotherapy before and failed.

Of course I know that you can stop smoking in one session with no pain at all!  No cravings! No withdrawal!

I know that you can cut down on your drinking or change your eating habits easily - no pain, no cravings...

I know because this is what I do, day in, day out.  I help people just like you to change. To get better.

And I will spend as long as it takes on the phone or in the office to explain all this to you.  That's my promise.

Maybe you're worried about spending money on something that won't work?

I often speak to people who think "it's too expensive" to get professional help.  But compared to what?  Your health? Your happiness?  Your family? Your longevity?  How can we put a price on those things?

Here's a question for you.  If you could meet your goal (stop smoking, reach your ideal weight, remove panic attacks or whatever your goal) tomorrow - how much would you pay?

You can work out how much you will save with things like stopping smoking, cutting alcohol or sugary foods.  Work it out over, say, a year.  How much?

You can try and put a price on your health or longevity.  How much?  How much do you already spend every year on looking and feeling good - haircuts, nail extensions (ladies!), gym membership, new hats!!!!

I would like to bet that all of the figures you calculate - or guess at - will be more than what professional help will cost.

So if it's time to stop making excuses.  If you're ready to get help.  Make the call.  Make the appointment.
Ask me the questions you really want answering. Call 0113 834 5424.

Your New Year's SOLUTION!

What's your 2016 New Year's SOLUTION?

No, it's not a typing error!

Most people I know don't bother with New Year's Resolutions any more.  Let's face we just don't stick to them, do we?

The most successful changes these days are made - and intended to only last - short term.  Think about Dry January or Stop Smoking October.  Most of us can make changes for a month!

Whilst there is research that says we only need to do (or not do) something for 21 days for it to become a habit (or not!), if we only intend to make the change for 31 days then we're just focussing on the 32nd day when we can go back to our old ways!

So what has caused you a problem in 2015?  

Why is it a problem?
Why do you want to change?
Make the reasons as strong as you possibly can.  Remember we move away from pain much faster and easier than we move towards pleasure.  The stick works better than the carrot!  So how is the problem affecting your health, wealth or happiness?

Now, how are you going to SOLVE that problem?

What's your New Year's SOLUTION?

(Remember you can't change other people, you can only change yourself).

What is the FIRST step you are going to take to SOLVE your problem?

Do it, schedule it, diarise it, organise it.  NOW!

Happy 2016!

In the news today..it's in your genes!

So it seems that Gene Taq1A plays a role in processing the hormone dopamine in the brain.  Dopamine is linked to a feeling of pleasure and reward but is also released in smokers.  So "experts" have discovered that anyone with this gene will find it harder to quit smoking.

Fortunately, if you have the A2 version of the gene you will find it easier to stop smoking!

Now this Chinese research was taken from pooled data from 22 studies involving nearly 10,000 people so far be it from me to question the findings!

Of course another study found that the gene known as CYP2A6 also makes it harder to stop smoking.

Oh dear! More ways to make it harder to stop smoking!  More reasons why people can't stop!

Many of my clients talk about hypnotherapy with me being their "last chance" to stop smoking.  They've tried "everything" and not stopped or stopped for a while then started again.

I explain that trying things that don't work doesn't make them failures!  Patches, Zyban, Champix, e-cigs all have their place but all have a very low proven success rate when it comes to helping anyone quit smoking.  You try them.  You fail.  You think you can't stop.

Well I think you're wrong!

Hypnotherapy generally does have one of the highest success rates.

I just wish I could test all my thousands of clients for theTaq1A and A2 genes - just as a matter of interest!!